My thoughts …"Netted on the Net"

Paid-Media & Liberals (I call them PALs in the rest of this piece) continue their attack on Art of Living and Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. As it turns out each time, unfailingly they were exposed and had to eat their socks which reminds me of this scene from a popular Indian Movie Gambler – Johnny Level type of grenade attack

Reasons for this sudden attention to everything that Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar & Art of Living does (of course, thank God that they do only Good) is not far to seek. The attacks ramped up especially after run away success of World Culture Festival 2016 in New Delhi where every leader worth his/her salt took part (I repeat, those worth their salt). There were incessant attacks from all quarters to derail this & to their utter dismay world not only stood up and took note, they handed out invites and offers to host the next one in their country. This was terribly indigestible for all those PALs who worked day in and out to stop the event at any cost. It bruised their ego and also choked their funds. Sadly even the nature conspired to deny them their sadistic pleasure. Rain that seem to be pouring turns into a rainbow 30 minutes before the inauguration by Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi While PAL focussed on the dirty slush on Yamuna banks, positively inclined folks enjoyed the now what is famously known as the WCF Rainbow.

My two penny analysis (yeah! tt can be written off as worth just that, but nevertheless I record my reasons here). As clear, it is far more deeper, not just the success of World Culture Festival, it is their attempt to scuttle Gurudev’s work as you will discover in this piece.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar still continues to be seen (perception among followers and opponents alike) as retaining His image as Hindu Spiritual leader and a Sadguru. He never diluted what has been the traditions and values of Sanatana Dharma, just to be seen as a liberal. He has taken the message of Sanatana Dharma across the world. He has established himself as one of the most respected Indian Spiritual Leader amongst the World leaders, who have reached out to Him for various interventions. Never after Swami Vivekananda did we have an Indian Guru who could get citizens of all belief, region & culture to voluntary participate in our Dharmic practices. To the utter dismay of PALs, Art of Living not only popularized all traditional rituals as per our scriptures but also ensured that people felt proud to be a part of such yagnas. Not only people stopped falling prey to the Vatican and Western agenda through PALs to negative portrayal of our traditions or making everyone look down upon our traditions and culture, today a sense of pride was instilled in being part of it.

It is pertinent to reproduce a part of my earlier piece arguing that Macaulay’s speech is a hoax, But I agree to whatever he is supposed to have said: Though Britishers gave up on that, our internal enemies for their own sinister purposes ensured that attempt was always on to undermine power and values of our Culture. Relevant part is reproduced here

I also agree with what “Macaulay is supposed to have said in the British Parliament”, that India’s richness and strength is its culture, and going by what JNU educated Historians are doing to the nation since independence, it also validates the strategy of how to break the backbone of the nation.

This is against the grain of what our PALs have come to believe. And Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is one of the formidable obstacle to what they want Indians to believe – That anything Indian in to be looked down upon. Considering the reach of Art of Living it is a common place to find European Christians or African Muslims tying the proverbial knot in the Vedic way.

What evangelists used to practice – embed themselves into local populace, embrace local customs and slowly indoctrinate local population into believing that our Gods are worthless and theirs is the only god. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar not only is seen as a challenger to this, but also someone who effortlessly draws people from other faith to appreciate, participate and derive benefits from our practices. I have seen many foreigners who have undergone Upanayana and practice Sandhya Vandanam more diligently than Indians. This is something that Vatican and their agents in the Western world are unable to counter in the open. A surreptitious campaign with support of PALs is thus launched against Sri Sri Ravi Shankar of late to silence Him and stop Him in His tracks – but alas! Satyameva Jayate (Truth alone Triumphs) – He marches on taking with single minded goal of “Bringing smiles to everyone’s face”

Another aspect is loss of the Youth to the Congress and Communists – A cursory glance at the followers of Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Art of Living indicates that students and youth across the world form a major chunk. Communists and Congress attracted youth with a negative agenda – agenda of obstruction, rebellion and destruction. Unless we are Anti-India there is no proverbial light at the end of tunnel. Youth that were brought up on a dose of negativity continued in the same steam throughout their lives.

Well it was only until Art of Living came along. A positive narrative was established. Youth suddenly found the values in Indian values, It attracted students from Premier Institutions like IIT, IIM and many others who later on became Art of Living’s and Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s ambassadors. This was bad news for PALs. Their foot soldiers who at the drop of the hat were provoked into going on strike, were today peacefully meditating, performing well academically. PAL Backers started questioning on return on investments – Gainfully employed, positively oriented youth means that there are no disruption on progressive work embarked in the country. From obstructionists they became facilitators, torch bearers of progress. They took pride in being natives. In a short span, the youth membership of YES crossed a lakh and it is growing exponentially. For the Communist cottage industry, their production lines got choked. There were no youth today to indulge in violence and strike or hartals. PAL backers saw no benefits in investing in them. So PALs went after Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and caught on anything and everything – Barring increasing His popularity – nothing changed. It is work as usual for Art of Living.

Art of Living attracts followers from all religions, regions and genders. All the spiritual practices and processes in the Ashram or in the courses offered by Art of Living are steeped in Indian culture and traditions – Positive assertion of the values that it adds to one life is the emphasis that draws millions of people everyday into this movement, much the river valley based civilization that we belong to. Contrast this with desert originated cults where negativity or lacks are highlighted to draw people to a movement. What this means to the Politics of a nation? While most in the majority community in India always voted irrespective of the candidates Religion, the minorities always voted en bloc on the basis of what their religious leaders decided. For a particular party, community or candidate from their own religion. This concept promoted by PALs explains disproportionate numbers in our Parliament.

Art of Living removed that line of Religious divide in Politics since this One World Family has people from all beliefs. They realized experientially that the divide was more a requirement of Selfish Politicians and they don’t benefit anyone at all. They went for Candidates based on merit. A basic research into Election results of 2014 especially in poor and poverty struck pockets of UP which has history of electing only Muslim candidates since independence suddenly elects a Hindu candidate. They realized that even 60 years did not change their status from being BPL card holders. What is different in these constituencies? Art of Living memberships and volunteers who did a lot of good work, produced changes that mattered. Villagers now did not bother about the diktats of their religious leaders and voted instead for those who thought will work for them. Uttar Pradesh results is a manifestation of such an approach. Personally, I also feel May 2014 was a result of emerging sense of pride and Indian Cultural renaissance, contributed in no small measures by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar ji and other Spiritual leaders

Expect more such attacks and attention on Hindu Spiritual Leaders. PALs are not going to let this slip away from them easily. But we are harder nuts to crack. We are here to stay. We will give better than what we get. We are on the side of TRUTH!